Search Engine Marketing

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing is required if you want to appear on your prospects radar. Although people are using sites like Twitter and Facebook to socialize, they are still using Google, Bing, and Yahoo to search for information about products, services, businesses, and people. This webinar focuses on teaching you the basics of search engine marketing and search engine optimization such as keyword selection and optimizing your website.

About the Search Engine Industry

• Search engines have been around in one form or another for centuries. The most recognizable one prior to Google was the library cataloging system.
• The first search engine as we know it today was called Archie. It was created in 1990 by McGill University computer science students Alan Emtage, Bill Heelan and J. Peter Deutsch. The number of files on the internet was so small that indexing was not necessary. They could be searched through manually.
• Although there are thousands of search engines today, there are only a few which are truly independent, Google, Bing, and Ask. All others get their results from them or are site specific.
• Yahoo! Is the oldest major search directory but Google is the biggest. Google averages over 11 billion searches per month.
• YouTube is the #2 search engine online with about 3 billion searches per month. It accounts for 28% of Google’s search traffic.

What is SEO/SEM

• SEM = Search Engine Marketing: Umbrella term for paid and free tactics used to raise visibility in search engines
• SEO = Search Engine Optimization: A variety of free techniques used to increase web page visibility in search engines.
• The goal of SEO/SEM is to rank on the first page of search engine results to attract the most traffic.
• The SEO industry began when search engines started indexing the web in the mid nineties. At the time, it was the realm of hobby webmasters. Today, it is a multimillion dollar industry with large and small companies dedicated to improving page visibility.
• Currently, the SEO industry is shifting directions because of the rise of social media. More and more people are using site specific search engines (Twitter, Facebook) to find information.
• - Why Should I Care?
• It is difficult to pinpoint the exact number of pages on the internet because the number changes by the minute. However, at last count there were over 110,000,000 distinct websites online. The average site has 50 pages which means there are at least 5 million pages online.
• Although Social Engine Search is rising in popularity, traditional search engines are still the first place people go to look for information.
• The majority of people do not click beyond the first 3 pages of search engine results for information.
• If you want to attract targeted traffic to your website, you must rank within those first few pages. Otherwise, you are leaving money on the table because your potential clients will not be able to find you.

It’s All About the Keywords

• The engine in search engines are the keywords.
• Keywords are the words and phrases people use to find information online.
• To attract targeted traffic to your website, it is import to use relevant keywords. These are the keywords your target audience uses to find information about the subject they are interested in.
• Not all keywords are the same. Some are research words and some are buy words.
• Research words are words people use when they are looking for information. They tend to be generic and non specific (e.g. refrigerators, social media marketing)
• Buy keywords are words people use when they are “shopping” and ready to spend money. They tend to be specific and can include purchase terms (e.g. cheap Maytag dryer, search engine consultant)

Keyword Research Basics

• Keyword research starts with your product. What are you selling? What words would people in your target audience use to find it?
• Strangely enough, your product is not always going to be the exact keyword people use to find info on it.
• For Instance, many of you are selling home based business opportunities. While that is a popular keyword, other keywords people use include work at home, home business, work online.
• A great place to get ideas about keywords is your competition. Read the articles on their site. What keywords seem to be popping up frequently?
• You can also view the page source of their web site to see what keywords they have listed in their meta tags.
• There are several tools online that will evaluate websites for keyword activity. Examples include SEM Rush, Compete, and Keyword Spy.
• Typically, you do not want to try and rank for singular or generic keywords (e.g. business, personal development). Not only are they nearly impossible to rank for but the traffic you receive from them is unfocused and doesn’t always convert well.
• The longer and more specific the keyword, the more targeted the traffic will be.
• Use tools to see how popular a particular keyword is. Keyword popularity tools include WordTracker, SEO Book Keyword Tool, Google Keyword Tool.
• Typically, the less popular a keyword is, the easier it will be to rank for it. When you are starting out, shoot for keywords in the low hundreds. (e.g. home based business = 3790 searches per day, online home based business = 155 searches per day and is targeted to people looking for internet opportunities)
• You want to rank for a variety of keywords associated with your business. However, start with one and its iterations until you get the hang of SEO/SEM.
• Branding with SEO means you want to be associated with a particular keyword set. When people think of you, they think of the keyword and your business.

Search Engine Optimization Basics

• The keywords need to show up on your website and often. However, overall keyword density should not exceed 5%. Going over that is considered keyword spamming and search engines will smack down your website.
• Your keyword should show up in the title tag of your sites and your articles. (e.g. Stacy Kinney – Social Media Trainer, or A List of Work at Home Businesses You Can Do In Your Spare Time)
• Your keywords should be a category or tag on your blog
• In your articles, try to get your keyword in the first and last paragraph, then sprinkle it throughout the rest of the content. Vary the keyword with other iterations of it.
• Use keywords in your image descriptions
• Use subheadings in your articles with the keywords. Wrap them in header tags (h2, h3, h4). Search engines put more weight on words within header tags.
• Offsite SEO is just as important as onsite SEO. Specifically, the links pointing to your website need to be abundant and optimized.
• Search engines consider links to your website to be a vote for your website as the most relevant site about a particular keyword.
• This is the primary reason why spammers do what they do. They are trying to improve their search engine rankings at your expense.
• The links pointing to your site should include your keywords in the anchor text. (e.g. <a href=http://www.stacykinney.com>Social Media Marketing</a>)
• Try to vary the keywords in the anchor text pointing to your site if you can to make your links seem as natural as possible.

Getting Backlinks

• You can generate links to your site in a number of ways.
• Post articles to article directories. In the resource box link to your website using keywords as the anchor text.
• Comment on blogs. Leave your name plus your keyword (e.g. Stacy Kinney – Social Media). Using keywords only will make you look like a spammer.
• Participate in forums. Place your link in the signature box.
• Guest post on other people’s blogs. Place your link in your author bio.
• Write content that people want to link to.
• Exchange links with other people in your industry.
• Create a giveaway product that links back to your site. Example, WordPress theme.
• Get interviewed by other people in your industry.
• Submit your site to web and blog directories

The Truth About Pagerank

• Pagerank is the thing that put Google on the map and made it the giant that it is today.
• Google uses over 200 factors to rank web pages. The number it spits out sits on a scale of 1-10. This scale represents where the site sits on the first page of the Google result pages. So a Pagerank of 10 sits at the #1 position in the results.
• When Google introduced the concept of the Pagerank, webmasters went nuts. It was supposed to gauge the trustworthiness of a particular site but it quickly become a status symbol. However, the search engine giant continued to promote it.
• Years later, though, Google is trying to mitigate some of the consequences that have occurred because of Pagerank by downplaying the importance of it.
• The truth is, it really is not important to your success. As long as you are showing up on the first two pages of the search results for your keywords, you will get the traffic you need to be successful.

Integrating SEO Into Social Media

• Google and Bing have started integrating social media into their result pages. Google has contracted with Twitter and Bing has a partnership with Facebook.
• Optimizing your social media profiles for search engines is pretty simple. Just use your keywords whenever you can.
• Use them in your bio and descriptions of the content you are linking to.
• Use them in your tweets and/or use keyword hashtags
• Try to use keywords in the anchor text when linking from Facebook.
• On LinkedIn, instead of using the default anchor text for your links change to keywords.
• Make sure you are using keywords in your article titles because they are often the only thing that will show when retweeted or Liked on Facebook.
• Bing shows Facebook content according to how many Likes it has. Encourage your followers to Like your content. Integrate social media tools on your website to make this easy.

Definitions

• Backlinks = Links pointing to your website from other sites on the internet.
• Target Traffic = Traffic that is searching for your category product or service who are more likely to buy or join
• Anchor Text = The words that sit inside of a hyperlink
• Web Directories = These are directories that list websites by category. There are general and specialized directories for both blogs and regular websites.
• Meta Tags = HTML code that is read by search engines which provides additional information about the website. There are several different kinds including a description tag and a key word tag.
• Title Tag = This is HTML code that tells the search engines what the title of the page is.
• Header Tags = HTML code that defines what words are the headers on the page.
• SERPs = Search Engine Results Pages; The pages that display the results of your search query.

Tips and Tools

• Your search engine marketing campaign should be slow and steady. Doing too much at once will cause the search engines to flag you as spam.
• Organize yourself. Come up with a content and linking schedule that you can do on a regular basis. (Example: Each week, post 1 article to blog, 2 articles to article directories, comment on 5 blogs)
• SEO changes constantly. Read blogs of SEO leaders to stay on top of what is happening in the industry. Search Engine Watch, SEO Moz, and Search Engine Journal are good ones.
• Make sure the theme for your website is SEO compatible. This means that title tags are in the right places and that there are back end tools which will help you with your SEO.
• Use plugins that assist in SEO such as All In One SEO Pack


Visit the Social Media Video Library for more blogging and social media training. Contact me for a free 1 hour consultation on how to use search engine marketing and other social media tools to your advantage.

Don’t Forget Search Engine Marketing

Despite the growth and popularity of social media, search engines will continue to be the start point for most people looking for specific information. This is especially true as search engines, like Google and Bing, have begun including results from social network sites, like Twitter, in their results page. What this means for you is that a good search engine marketing plan should be on the table for your business.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

The definition of search engine marketing, also known as SEM, is optimizing your website and internet marketing strategies so that your site ranks high in the search engine for targeted keywords. If you remember, keywords are those words and phrases your prospects use to find information related to the product and services you offer.

For example, people looking to start a home based business may enter the keywords, ‘start a business’ or ‘home based business ideas’. Unless the results they get have a lot of spam in them, most people will not continue past the first 1-3 pages of the search results. Therefore, the goal of your search engine marketing efforts is to get your website to rank within those first three pages, preferably the first page, for the keywords your target audience is using.

What You Should Know About Search Engine Marketing

Now before you rush to your website and start loading it up with keywords there are a few things you should know about search engines that will make your search engine marketing more effective.

* Search Engines are Dynamic – Google, Bing, and Yahoo are selling a service just like you. They want to provide their users with the most relevant results for their search terms as they can. They are constantly evaluating web pages to make sure they are still good enough to be included in the search results pages. This means you must always be doing some kind of search engine marketing to maintain or improve your position in their indexes.

* Search Engines Don’t Rank Websites – Now this may seem like crazy talk especially after that long explanation on how search engines rank websites based on keywords. In all actuality, search engines rank individual web pages. This is a good thing because you can target a wide range of related keywords to maximize the amount of search engine traffic flowing to your site.

* All Keywords Are Not Created Equal – Ranking well for specific keywords is at the heart of your search engine marketing strategy. However, not all keywords are the same. Some keywords will send you prospects who are only doing research on a topic and others terms will send you people who are ready to buy or invest in the product you are selling. You need to rank for both and build a sales funnel that will send them to your “Buy Now” button.

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(photo credit: Sean Dreilinger)

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